ROCORI Opens Section Playoffs With With Over Willmar

COLD SPRING — The top-seeded ROCORI Spartans opened up play in the Section 8-3A Playoffs by facing a familiar face in the opening round of the tournament, hosting the sixth-seed Willmar Cardinals at the Cold Spring Baseball Park.

ROCORI stormed on to a convincing win over Willmar, taking the game in five inning by a score of 12-2.

The Spartans fell behind early when the Cardinals tallied two runs in the top of the second inning. ROCORI answered back strong, bringing home two runs in the bottom of the second before breaking things open with six runs in the fourth inning and four in the fifth inning.

Beck Loesch finished 1-for-2 with three RBI and Jack Boos added two RBI and one run scored for ROCORI. Brady Weber went 2-for-3 with two RBI, John Kinzer had one hit and one RBI, Thad Lieser added one run scored and one RBI and Jack Spanier finished with one hit and two runs scored for the Spartans.

On the mound, Hunter Fuchs threw a complete game to get the win, giving up just two hits, one earned run and striking out six.

With the win, ROCORI advanced to the winners' bracket of the Section 8-3A Playoffs and will face the fourth-seeded Detroit Lakes Lakers, who fell to No. 3 Little Falls in the first round, at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday in Cold Spring in the second round.

View the full Section 8-3A Playoff bracket here.